Bits and pieces of projects I’ve worked on or completed over the years are scattered across multiple /backup and /archive folders. One of the first pieces of code I remember writing that went ‘public’ was a javascript Plinko game. I was surprised in 2020 when I found someone had lifted my code, attributed it to me, and it was archived! In case further clean-up is done, I snagged a copy of the code so my pre-1999 code is always available for my review (and maybe some day I’ll clean it up so it doesn’t error)
The next big personal project I remember was an online database for players/fan of Gran Turismo (1 and 2) on Playstation 1 to record their best license test scores. This sprung out of an online forum for players of the game, where times were shared via text, but there wasn’t an easy way to see who was fastest, or how you compared to the elite. Using ASP and an Access database, I set up a site with its own registration system, the game-provided times for Bronze, Silver, Gold for dozens of license tests, and let users (on the honor system) post their time for each license. It was a great user group who would happily self-correct if a time was entered to the wrong test, and it helped me learn a few more things about building web apps (if that’s what you can call it in 1999-2000. I still have most of the ASP code, but haven’t taken the time to get a PWS up and running for screenshots. Could be tough without a copy of access. In looking for an archive copy of it online, I did find a new version of it, sans database, which looks to be last updated in 2016.
Also around 2000 I was using ASP/Access for my own blog and a coworker of mine. That was enjoyable and let me do themes or other redesigns without having to manually a bunch of pages the way we had been doing things before.
My time as a web developer was allowing me to create some pretty good projects for work as well. I think I did some small work on bringing MotorTrend magazine online for the first time, lots of hand-coding for energy companies and drag strips, but then I got a job as a systems developer in an IT department at a marketing agency and dove pretty quickly into a web-based timesheet system to replace their old client-server model. In addition to connecting to the Oracle-based HR/Financial system (Lawson) for billing codes and employee identification, I included approval workflow, job lists for managers to share/publish billing codes to their team, front-end and back-end validation (numerical quarter-hour increments, hours-per-day limits), copy from previous week, re-usable templates, and submission reminders. I did a slight rewrite a few years later, but the basic system was in use long after I left until an off-the-shelf system was implemented.
Given the opportunity to learn new technologies (cold fusion, db2, domino) I designed and developed an online “shared learning” resource for the training group to help move their resources (magazines, articles, books, etc) to online, or provide an index of their materials for reservation. Domino was a completely new system for me and was a bit of a battle, one that I never embarked on again!